Tyler Sims was officially freaked out. Reid had called a meeting of the Covenant. Reid. The Covenant's resident rebel rarely made it to the meetings on time, never mind suggesting that he take them seriously. So for him to call a meeting? It had to be serious. And that was what was freaking Tyler out.
Although they jokingly called him 'Baby Boy', he knew that he wasn't as experienced or street-smart as Reid and Pogue, or even Caleb, who frowned on their typical brand of fun. He knew, too, that they meant it affectionately, not as a disparagement. Despite knowing that they loved him, he couldn't help but think that, as the last to go through the Ascension, he was somehow less capable or powerful than his brothers. His 'baby' status was a source of constant, if subconscious, worry to him. If Reid felt that he couldn't deal with this thing on his own – and he'd been known to make some reckless decisions on that front in the past – it was probably something that had scared him. A lot. That scared Tyler. A lot.
They met, as was the custom, at the top of the stone staircase, going down in order of age; Caleb went first, looking as serious as usual, then Reid, then Pogue, and Tyler last. When they had settled into the circle, there was a moment of silence. Then, as though by tacit consent, four pairs of eyes darkened to black, and the Book of Damnation slowly rose above the flames suddenly kindled around it. The ritual complete, they looked to Reid enquiringly; as the one who had asked to meet, he was traditionally required to speak first. The blonde rose slowly to his feet, an unusual expression of gravity on his face. The other three all shifted uncomfortably in response; Reid and seriousness didn't go together.
Looking around at them, the blonde suddenly grinned. "Lighten up, brothers of mine." Caleb smiled quietly, but Pogue and Tyler sighed in relief. Reid slumped back into his seat again, idly tapping his fingers against his thigh. Finally he sighed and began. "Did any of you feel the pulses last night?"
Pogue and Tyler shook their heads, but Caleb eyed Reid in surprise. "I did, but I didn't think it anyone else had."
Reid scowled. "Just because you've Ascended, it doesn't mean the rest of us are less powerful than you."
Caleb grinned suddenly. "Actually, yes it does." He lifted a hand to forestall Reid's caustic response. "But I'm sorry for not sharing with you, anyway."
Shooting him a last, black look, Reid examined his fingernails in silence for a few maddening moments. "It woke me up, so I thought I'd go check it out," he said at last, "I looked out the window, and I saw this thing going into the wood. So, naturally, I followed it."
Pogue rolled his eyes, Tyler just snorted, but Caleb frowned at him, the light from the fire flickering across his dark, handsome face. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that curiosity killed the cat?"
The blonde boy rolled his eyes in disgust. "And we all know what happened next." Caleb's frown deepened, but Reid ignored him and carried on. "Well, I got into the wood – and that's one creepy-ass forest at night, man – and I didn't see anything. I got this weird, tingling feeling on the back of my neck. Kinda like when I walk through the hallways and your girlfriends look at me." He smirked at Pogue and Caleb insolently. Tyler just grinned. "So I turn around, and I just catch sight of this thing running off into the trees. I go after it, but it takes me a minute to find my way out of that shitty forest in the dark, and when I do I feel the second pulse of Power. I look across, and just after the pulse, the only room that had been lit up goes dark."
He paused dramatically. Tyler, Caleb and Pogue looked at him expectantly, but remained patient. It was better to humour Reid when he was in his awkward moods. "I went down this morning, and guess who came out of that room?" At their blank looks, he rolled his eyes. "The new girl herself."
"Kai?" Caleb.
"No way!" Tyler.
"So?" Pogue.
Reid quirked an eyebrow at the long-haired boy, who shrugged. "What's to say she didn't just walk out of her room?" Caleb and Tyler nodded.
"She hissed at me. And she feels… weird."
Caleb smirked at that. "Reid Garwin is talking about feelings? There's irony for you."
The blonde scowled, clenching his fists angrily. "Aren't you always saying we should trust our instincts? My instincts say she stinks. And that's another thing! She sniffs people! Normal chicks don't sniff people."
The eldest boy sighed, but nodded at the other two observers, who returned the gesture. "I'm sorry, Reid. It's just that you don't usually rely on intuition that much. But if you say she's off, we'll watch her. Just watch her, okay?"
Reid carried on frowning, but his hands relaxed. "It's cool. Now let's get out of here."
It took Kai only a few days to realize that the Sons of Ipswich, (and wasn't that a label that just oozed presumption?) were following her. She shared every lesson with at least one of them, and everywhere she went she would spot one of them, never close behind her, and rarely looking at her, but always there. Sarah and Kate, who had rapidly formed a deep and lasting bond with the exotic girl, noticed that she was becoming jumpy and that her usual air of serene indifference was becoming more and more disturbed. They relayed their worries to the Sons, but Reid argued against backing off.
"Sooner or later," he maintained, "She'll snap."
Two weeks into their subtle campaign, he was beginning to lose faith. Kai had stopped speaking to the boys, had withdrawn slightly even from Kate and Sarah, and although she hadn't done anything unusual or suspicious, there was a wild, wary look in her eyes that reminded Caleb of the fox they had accidentally caught in a humane trap set for the Academy's lost cat; its primal terror and desperation at being trapped had left a lasting impression on him. When Kai's appetite dropped off, leaving her listless and dull, and her attention began to wander in class, Caleb finally called a halt to the whole thing. Even Reid had to admit that there had been no signs of abnormal behavior.
The strain of their constant vigil ran deeper in the dark girl than they perceived. The fierce sensation she could only describe as pressure had been closing more tightly around her mind every night she refused to undertake the Change, and the nightmares were becoming more frequent and more vivid. She found herself unable to eat, and the slightest sound made her jump; claustrophobia, always lurking beneath her skin, began to gnaw at her consciousness, and she became quieter, snapping at anyone who talked to her.
When they finally gave up trying to watch her, she almost cried with relief. Only her iron-like will stopped her from weeping; it had been looked on with disgust and scorn in her native land, where every child's lot was equally as lamentable. Since her tenth birthday, Kai hadn't shed a single tear. Even her mother's funeral had left her outwardly unmoved, though she still had tiny, raised scars on the inside of her lip from biting into it so hard. Despite their apparent acceptance of her, however, she was no longer at ease around the Sons, and continued to avoid their company. If they approached her, she would suddenly find that she had forgotten something, or needed to talk to someone. Kate and Sarah began to notice their friend's averted eyes and discomfort, and confronted the brothers.
"What did you do to Kai?" Kate demanded, poking Pogue hard in the chest.
He threw his hands up defensively, wincing. "Nothing! We didn't do anything to her, baby, I swear."
Sarah eyed Caleb, who looked back calmly, then Tyler, who was blushing and shifting uncomfortably. Her eyes narrowed, much in the manner of the lioness who has picked her kill. "What did you do? I swear, Caleb Danvers, if you don't tell me I won't speak to you for a month!"
Reid, with prudent fore-thought, edged away from the two girls, who stood hands on hips in the middle of their boyfriends' shared dorm. Without looking at him, Kate jabbed a finger in his direction. "Stay there, blonde boy!"
After another few moments of uncomfortable silence, Tyler suddenly blurted out in one breath, "We followed her around because Reid said she felt funny and we thought that she might be evil like Chase so we had to know if she knew but nothing happened and now I feel really bad and I'm sorry!"
Reid and Pogue rolled their eyes and shook their heads sadly. The boy is whipped! Caleb merely cleared his throat, showing the first signs of unease. Sarah and Kate exchanged an eloquent glance and turned towards the door in disgust. That finally moved the eldest Son to act. "You know we had to do it, Sarah." His quiet voice stopped the girls in their tracks. "We had to know if she was a threat." He paused, his voice dropping to almost a whisper. "What if something happened to you? What if she knew about us, and went through you to do something about it? I couldn't handle it."
Sarah hesitated, but Kate turned on him, eyes bright with anger. She opened her mouth to speak, but Reid suddenly straightened and strode across the room, his eyes narrowing into a cold glare. He yanked open the door to reveal Kai standing there; surprisingly, she didn't seem at all shocked when the door was suddenly wrenched open. Raising her chin, she stepped into the room and Reid slammed the door behind her. She flinched almost imperceptibly at the sound. Looking at the dark smudges beneath her eyes, the blonde felt the first stirrings of guilt, but he pushed them away ruthlessly; Reid Garwin didn't feel for girls. Well, anything other than lust, anyway.
Raising her chin proudly, defiantly, Kai met their embarrassed eyes with fierce ones of her own. "You had to know whether I knew what?"